An Air France Airbus A330-200 plane carrying 228 people vanished off theradar screen early this morning. The plane was traveling from Rio de Janeiro toParis. The plane left Rio de Janeiro at 6 p.m. EDT Sunday with an anticipatedarrival time in Paris at 5:15 a.m. this morning. Contact with the plane waslost at 10:20 p.m. Sunday.The Associated Press reports a search and rescue operation is underwayaround the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha. That island lies justoffshore of Brazil's easternmost point.
Reports now indicate the the plane encountered turbulence, a possiblelightning strike and possible electrical problem. The area where they aresearching for the plane had numerous heavy thunderstorms Sunday evening. Thisis an area called the Intertropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ. Storms wereprobably towering to a height over 40,000 feet and given the breadth of thestorms on the satellite images, it was probably tough for the pilots to avoidthe storms. Reports coming in from Air France indicate the plane may have beehit by lightning as well as having an electrical problems.
Water temperatures in that area are in the upper 70s and low 80s.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski
